Thursday, 16 August 2007

BBoM Raspberry Brownies for Two

It sometimes seems that some recipes are waiting for the right ingredient to appear in my kitchen. Buying frozen raspberries for my crumble on Saturday (oops this post is still to come) seemed such a luxury in winter that I had to make the most of it. I have had a Donna Hay recipe for raspberry brownies that has interested me for some time but the raspberries have never appeared at the right time … until now!

Well they are named brownies but are not brownies as I know them. I think of brownies as slabs of chocolate that is chewy, even a little undercooked in the middle. These are actually cooked in a mini muffin pan and are more cake-like than densely fudgy.

Nevertheless, what appealed to me about the recipe was it seemed quite small. A lot of recipes seem to cater for a small army which is fine if you are cooking for lots of family or work colleagues or friends. But, in a household of two, it is a relief to find a recipe that is small enough to eat without feeling gluttonous, and shamed into loading up the freezer or taking food to whoever will eat it! It is also a useful recipe for when you don’t have many ingredients on hand (or if you wanted to use GL flour so you could take a small amount of gluten free cakes available at a party).

These brownie muffins probably felt more of a treat in winter with the hard to come by raspberries. I loved the wonderful scarlet splodges throughout them. E told me that he found them pleasingly light because some of my baking is just too much chocolate (blasphemer!). But I can’t help agree they tasted good with the berries giving off little tart explosions that go nicely with the rich chocolate taste.

Preheat oven to 180C. Melt chocolate and butter in large bowl. Mix in remaining ingredients except raspberries. Fold in raspberries.

Now the bit I don’t understand in the recipe is the instructions to cut 10 x 10cm rounds of paper to line 12 x 25ml hole mini muffin pans – seems to me it would just fill the holes with paper but maybe that is my limited imagination. I just used mini muffin papers.

Spoon into mini muffin pan (actually I used an 11 hole pan and it seemed fine to fill each hole!) Bake 20 minutes or til set.

11 comments:

Hi Johanna - I come to you via Wendy's blog. Too fun as I have just started visiting Lucy's blog and she is from Australia also! I was lucky to get to visit your country a few years back and totally enjoyed it. Was in Sydney, was able to make it to Hunter Valley for wine!, Darwin to the rain forest and Alice Springs to visit Ayers Rock. It was a trip of a life time! I wish I could return. 2 weeks was just not enough.Your brownies for 2 look very inviting. I am always looking for a nice simple, portable dessert and this looks like it would work! Cheers!

Hi Winedeb - 2 weeks in Australia is far too short - you definitely need to return - having said that my time in USA has been sadly in adequately short, so i understand it isn't always easy to find the time (and money). And yes, this is a great portable dessert - E has been enjoying it heated slightly in the microwave with lashings of cream.

Patricia - indeed, chocolate and raspberries are such an excellent combination!

Holler - these are good and best of all it is a really small amount of cakes you make so you don't have to feel guilty about eating big slabs of cake - if you need some indulgence during your diet these are the ones for you!

Anh, rasberry truffle sounds fantastic!

Yes, lucy, that is what I have to put up with - someone who would prefer a plain butter cake to a decent chocolate cake - sigh!

Kathleen - I think raspberries are up there with my favourite fruits - they just look so fantastic as well as tasting great!

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Recipes and reflections in which our vegetarian heroine dreams of being tall and graceful as a giraffe; being a goddess in the kitchen; and being gladdened by green gadgets, green food and green politics because green is the colour of hope. See About Me for more info.